The Warren & the World Vol 5, Issue 21

The Warren & the World is Story Warren’s weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We’re glad you’re here!

Around the Web

8 Things You Can Do to Fight Hunger in Your Community

Clancy Harrison guest posts at Real Mom Nutrition has a piece up looking at the reality of food insecurity in our communities and the ways our families can get involved in serving those who face it.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own first-world food problems that we forget there are people in our own communities–including children who sit alongside our kids in the classroom–who worry about simply having enough food to eat on a daily basis.

The ‘No Homework’ Movement Needs To Catch On Everywhere

Katie Bingham-Smith explores the “no homework” movement and it’s value in this post at Scary Mommy.

I have sat with all of my kids through excruciating evenings of trying to help them figure out long division and fractions. I especially remember my oldest son struggling really hard during his fourth-grade year. He would come home everyday at 3:30 and would sit down, eyes bugging out of his head, and just mindlessly eat snacks and stare off into space for at least 20 minutes.

Victoria’s Recommended Family Games

Occupational Therapist Victoria Prooday has a list of recommended family games that you might enjoy as you spend your longer summer evenings together.

Bring back the tradition of family game night. Turn off your phones and be emotionally available to share with your kids the joy of playing family games.
Below is the list of the games that my kids and my clients love to play.

Practice Your Devotion

Tim Challies has a series on his blog called “Run to Win” in which he challenges men to lifelong godly pursuits. His words are not just for men, however, and women also can take up the challenge to practice devotion.

In all the books I’ve read, I’ve come to learn that the effort of reading an entire book is often rewarded with a single profound sentence. In a book made up of thousands of words, just one sentence has the power to transform us. I remember one such sentence in a book I read early on as a Christian on the subject of godliness. I do not remember much of its content or even its title. But I do remember one line, which was the main point of the book: Character is who you are when no one is looking.

Around the Warren

The Earth Between My Fingers

We’ve turned the corner into June, and it’s really and truly spring in the northern climes–and really and truly summer in the southern ones (and really and truly the opposite seasons below the equator!). Glenn McCarty has a piece for us about the blessedness of tactile work, from counting coins to gardening.

My wife stood at the kitchen table the other day separating coins for a lesson she was preparing for her kindergarten students. She divided the change into piles, separating the great silver discs of quarters from the dimes and nickels, finding a space in the corner for that midget of a copper afterthought, the penny. As I watched her work, I found myself wondering the point of learning such an increasingly-obsolete skill as counting change. After all, my pennies usually end up massed in the cup-holder of my car or orphaned in a dresser drawer, and most of my transactions take place electronically, with 1’s and 0’s substituting for the metal coins and paper bills.

Sub-Text in the Sub-Floor of Something from Nothing

Layered meanings in children’s literature are nothing new. We’ve all returned to a favorite childhood book and discovered a cache of truths we didn’t perceive the first time around. Ring-Around-the-Rosy, Humpty Dumpty, and other Mother Goose rhymes are purported to signify facts of medieval socio-economics. And even Jesus’ parables, though delivered to a mixed audience, were simple enough for children to understand.

Something to Do with Your Kids

And Something to Watch

Some days, Dick Van Dyke and an a capella group wind up singing “Chitty Bang Bang” in a California Denny’s. Because some days are just delightful like that. (And here’s a link to the original from the movie for reference on how well he remembered the words!)